Method and System for Pairing a Medium to a User Account

ABSTRACT

There is provided a system for pairing a medium with a user account comprising a media player configured to retrieve a medium identifier from the medium and a player identifier from a memory of the media player. The media player is further configured to transmit the medium identifier and the player identifier to a server. Additionally, the media player is further configured to receive a key associated with the medium identifier and the player identifier from the server. The server is configured to receive the key and the user account for pairing the user account with the medium associated with the key. A computer may be utilized to transmit the key and the user account to the server, after the key has been provided to a user by the media player. The media player and the computer may communicate with the server via the Internet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to media players. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to user accounts and mediaassociated with media player.

2. Background Art

People have come increasingly to utilize online user accounts, such asuser accounts accessible through web pages, to manage information aboutthe media that they purchase or license. For example, a person canutilize a user account to manage information about the music he listensto, the pictures he takes, or the movies he watches. In the past, mediaconsumers might simply have rented or purchased, for example, a movie,watched it, and ended their experience then. In the modern trend,however, the media consumers can broaden their experience through theuse of online services.

For example, today, a media consumer can utilize a user account tomanage information about a movie in several ways. The media consumer mayadd a movie to a list of all the movies he or she rents or owns, therebyassociating the movie with the user account. He or she may additionallyrank the listed movies according to personal preferences, and associatecomments with each movie. If the user account is maintained on a websitewith other user accounts, the person may also be able to see otherpersons' lists of movies, and rank and make comments about those movies.On such a website, multiple people may also be able to engage inforum-based discussions about movies, leave messages and provide adviceto one another about movies, or communicate in other ways about moviesor other forms of media. Ultimately, utilization of an online useraccount by a person can greatly broaden and enhance his movie-watchingexperience. However, conventionally, a user must access a web site wherethe user account is maintained, manually log onto the user account, andenter various information about the new media content, such as a newDVD, that he has purchased, in order to associate the new DVD with theuser account. The user must perform these tedious tasks for each singleDVD that the user purchases, using, for example, a personal computer ora stand-alone media player. But, of course, many users forego taking thetime to register yet another product or each instance of media contentand, thus, the main advantages of the online user accounts and theassociated benefits to the media consumers will not be realized by useraccount providers and consumers.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art for easing the utilization ofmedia user accounts by the media consumers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There are provided methods and systems for pairing a medium to a useraccount, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection withat least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will become morereadily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewingthe following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein:FIG. 1 shows a diagram of an exemplary system for pairing a medium to auser account, according to one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a flowchart presenting a method for pairing a medium to a useraccount, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present application is directed to methods and systems for pairing amedium to a user account. The following description contains specificinformation pertaining to the implementation of the present invention.One skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention may beimplemented in a manner different from that specifically discussed inthe present application. Moreover, some of the specific details of theinvention are not discussed in order not to obscure the invention. Thespecific details not described in the present application are within theknowledge of a person of ordinary skill in the art. The drawings in thepresent application and their accompanying detailed to description aredirected to merely exemplary embodiments of the invention. To maintainbrevity, other embodiments of the invention, which Use the principles ofthe present invention, are not specifically described in the presentapplication and are not specifically illustrated by the presentdrawings. It should be borne in mind that, unless noted otherwise, likeor corresponding elements among the figures may be indicated by like orcorresponding reference numerals.

FIG. 1 shows system 100 for pairing a medium to a user account,according to one embodiment of the present invention. System 100includes medium or disk 108, player 112, and computer 114 for use byuser 104. System 100 additionally includes server 110, which engages intransactions 116, 126, and 132 with player 112 and computer 114 viaInternet 106. A pairing process, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention, may comprise transactions 116, 122, 126, and 132.

In this embodiment, medium or disk 108 can be a Blu-ray disk. In otherembodiments of the invention, disk 108 could be a CD-ROM music disk, aVHS movie cassette, a DVD movie disk, or an instance of another mediaformat. In addition to storing a movie, disk 108 may additionally storea unique medium identifier or disk identifier, as well as the address ofserver 110 on Internet 106. After a pairing process is completed, disk108 will be paired to a user account on server 110.

Player 112 may be a stand-alone media player that is capable of loadingdisk 108 for pairing and playback. Thus, in this embodiment of thepresent invention, player 112 can be a Blu-ray player, having a memoryfor storing a unique player identifier and account record 134 during apairing process. Player 112 can provide audio-visual output on anelectronic display (not shown), which in this embodiment is a standaloneLCD screen, and which displays instructions 120 during a pairingprocess. In other embodiments of the present invention, the display ofplayer 112 could be a CRT screen, a plasma screen with integratedspeakers, or another media display device. Player 112 is coupled toInternet 106 to engage in transactions 116 and 132 with server 110.

Computer 114 is a computer comprising a processor, memory, outputdisplay, and input keyboard and mouse (not shown). In other embodimentsof the present invention, computer 114 may be a cell phone, a PDA, orany other Internet-capable device. Computer 114 is configured to receiveinput from user 104 during transaction 122 via web browser 124 and iscoupled to Internet 106 to engage in transaction 126 with server 110.

Server 110 is, in this embodiment, a computer comprising a processor anda memory, executing a server software to communicate with player 112 andcomputer 114 via Internet 106. In another embodiment of the presentinvention, server 110 can comprise two or more networked computers thatrun server software individually or in a distributed fashion. The memoryof server 110 is utilized during a pairing process to store records 118,128, and 130. Server 110 is coupled to Internet 106 to engage intransactions 116, 132 and 126 with player 112 and computer 114.

To begin a pairing process, user 104 loads disk 108 into player 112,thus starting transaction 116. In this embodiment, disk 108 has notpreviously been paired with a user account stored on server 110, soplayer 112 does not have a stored record of a user account, i.e. at thebeginning of the pairing process account record 134 is not extant. Oncedisk 108 is loaded, player 112 retrieves and transmits the unique diskidentifier of disk 108 and the unique player identifier of player 112 toserver 110 via Internet 106.

After receiving the unique disk and player identifiers of disk 108 andplayer 112, server 110 continues transaction 116 by generating a uniquekey. In this embodiment, the key may be a hash computed by the serversoftware from a server time code, based on the unique disk identifierand the unique player identifier. In other embodiments, the key may begenerated by different functions, so long as the generated key isunique. After generating the key, server 110 stores the key, the uniquedisk identifier, and the unique player identifier in record 118 forsubsequent use in the pairing process. To complete transaction 116,server 110 transmits the key to player 112 via Internet 106.

While waiting for server 110 to complete transaction 116, player 112 mayprovide, for example, a splash page or a progress indicator on thedisplay. After transaction 116 has been completed, and player 112 hasreceived the key generated by server 110, transaction 122 may begin. Tobegin transaction 122, player 112 replaces the splash page or progressindicator on the display with pairing instructions 120. Instructions 120comprise the unique key, the Internet address of server 110 storedoriginally on disk 108, and a set of instructions for user 104. The setof instructions instructs user 104 on how to utilize computer 114 toperform transaction 126 during transaction 122.

User 104 utilizes computer 114 to perform transaction 126 by firstconnecting to server 110 by, in this embodiment, typing the Internetaddress in instructions 120 into web browser 124. Server software onserver 110 functions as a web server for web browser 124, but in otherembodiments server 110 and computer 114 may communicate via a differentInternet protocol. Transaction 126 continues as server 110 communicateswith web browser 124 to present user 104 with an account creationprompt. User 104 then creates a user account on server 110 by creating ausername and password for the user account in the account creationprompt on web browser 124.

After creating the user account, server 110 communicates with webbrowser 124 to present user 104 with a key prompt. To completetransaction 126, user 104 enters the key displayed in instructions 120into the key prompt on web browser 124. Once the key is entered,computer 114 transfers the key to server 110. Having received the keyfrom user 104, server 110 creates and stores record 128, associating thekey and the newly created user account, thus completing transaction 126.

After transaction 126, server 110 has sufficient information to pair theuser account to disk 108. Previously, during transaction 116, server 110created record 118 associating the key, the unique disk identifier, andthe unique player identifier. At this point, after transaction 126,server 110 also has stored record 128, associating the key and the useraccount. Server 110 may thus execute software to match record 118 withrecord 128, because both contain the common key. Having matched records118 and 128, server 110 creates record 130, associating the unique diskidentifier and unique player identifier of record 118 with the useraccount of record 128. Additionally after transaction 126, user 104concludes transaction 122 by confirming creation of the user account onserver 110 to player 112 by, for example, operating a remote control(not shown) of player 112. Player 112, after being notified thattransaction 126 is complete, concludes transaction 122.

After concluding transaction 122, transaction 132 can be performed. Intransaction 132, player 112 requests the user account from server 110via Internet 106. is Upon receiving the request for a user account fromplayer 112, the server software executing on server 110 can look uprecord 130, which contains the unique player identifier of player 112.Server 110 can then transmit the user account, comprising the user nameand password of user 104, to player 112, thus concluding transaction132. Player 112 stores the user account in record 134.

At the conclusion of transactions 116, 122, 126, and 132, record 130 onserver 110 and record 134 on player 112 include the result of thepairing process. Record 130 enables server 110 to maintain a useraccount accessible by user 104 via computer 114 or via player 112.Player 112, storing the user account in record 134, can access the useraccount on server 110 via Internet 106 with minimal input from user 104.If disk 108 is removed from player 112 and later reinserted, player 112can contact server 110 with the user account stored in record 134 andconfirm that disk 108 is paired with the user account.

FIG. 2 shows flowchart 200 of an exemplary method for pairing a mediumto a user account, according to one embodiment of the present invention.Certain details and features have been left out of flowchart 200 thatare apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art. For example, astep may comprise one or more substeps or may involve specializedequipment or materials, as known in the art. While steps 210 through 230indicated in flowchart 200 are sufficient to describe one embodiment ofthe present invention, other embodiments of the invention may utilizesteps different from those shown in flowchart 200.

Steps 206 through 230 of flowchart 200 occur either on a media playercorresponding to player 112 in FIG. 1, shown as player steps 202, or ona computer corresponding to computer 114 in FIG. 1, shown as computersteps 204. Transaction 116 of FIG. 1 corresponds to step 210,transactions 122 and 126 of FIG. 1 correspond to steps 212 through 220,and transaction 132 corresponds to step 222.

Flowchart 200 begins in step 206 of player steps 202. In step 206, auser corresponding to user 104 inserts a disk corresponding to disk 108into a player corresponding to player 112. Like disk 108, in thisembodiment, the disk can be a Blu-ray movie disk, but in otherembodiments the disk could he an instance of another media format, suchas a DVD movie disk. Additionally, like player 112, the player can be aBlu-ray player.

In step 208 of flowchart 200, the player determines whether a useraccount is stored in the player in a record corresponding to record 134.If a user account is so stored, then flowchart 200 proceeds to step 226,but if a user account is not, flowchart 200 proceeds to step 210. Inthis embodiment, the player, corresponding to player 112, does not havea user account stored, so flowchart 200 proceeds to step 210.

In step 210 of flowchart 200, the player retrieves a key from a server(not shown) corresponding to server 110. The player first transmits aunique disk identifier of the disk and a unique player identifier of theplayer to the server, and the server utilizes both in addition to aserver timestamp to compute a unique key. The key is stored on theserver in a record corresponding to record 118, in addition to beingtransmitted to the player. After receiving the key, the player displaysthe key, the Internet address of the server, and a set of instructionson a display (not shown), such as an LCD display. The instructions,corresponding to instructions 120, instruct the user to perform steps212 through 218 on a computer corresponding to computer 114 and then toreturn to the player.

In step 212 of flowchart 200, the user begins following the instructionson the display of the player by utilizing a web browser corresponding toweb browser 124 of the computer to contact the server at the Internetaddress. As with system 100 of FIG. 1, other embodiments of theinvention may use communication technology different from a computer webbrowser, such as a PDA, a cell phone, or another networked device. Oncein contact with the server, the user completes step 212 by creating anew user account, and logs into the new user account in step 214.

In step 216 of flowchart 200, the user enters the key displayed in theinstructions into the web browser. The computer transmits the key to theserver, which creates a key and user account record corresponding torecord 128. The server then executes server software to match the keyand user account record to the key, player and disk record createdduring step 210. Once a match is found, the server pairs the useraccount with the disk in step 218, and the user returns to the player instep 220.

In step 220 of flowchart 200, the instructions the player displayed instep 210 instruct the user to prompt the player after pairing the diskand the user account in step 218. The user does so by, for example,operating the player with a remote control. Once prompted, in step 222the player can reconnect to the server and request the newly createduser account. In response, the server can identify the correct useraccount based on the unique player identifier of the player, and sendthe user account to the player. After completing step 222, the playerhas stored the user account, has been loaded with the disk, and may thusproceed to step 224 and play the disk for the user.

In prior step 208, the player did not have a stored user account, andthus the player proceeded from step 208 to step 210. If, aftercompleting step 222 and watching the movie in step 224, the user repeatsstep 206 and inserts a second disk, a different path through flowchart200 will be taken. The second disk requires the player to determineagain whether a user account is stored on the player. In contrast withthe first occurrence of step 206, after insertion of the second disk theplayer does have a user account stored. Thus, the player proceeds tostep 226, instead of step 210.

In step 226 of flowchart 200, the player connects to the server and logsin to the user account. Once logged in to the server, the player in step228 queries the server about whether the second disk is paired to theuser account. If the second disk is the same Blu-ray title as the firstdisk, the server will respond affirmatively, and no action needs to betaken on the server, because the second disk is already effectivelypaired, and the player may proceed to step 224 and play the second disk.If, in contrast, the second disk is a different title than the firstdisk, the server will respond in the negative and the player willproceed to step 230.

In step 230 of flowchart 200, the server pairs the second disk with theuser account and confirms to the player that the second disk has been sopaired. Thus, a record on the server and a record on the player recordthe result of the pairing process of flowchart 200. The record on theserver enables the server to maintain a user account accessible via thecomputer and via the player. The player can access user account featureson the server without further input from the user. Once step 230 hasbeen completed, the player may proceed to step 224 and play the seconddisk.

From the above description of the invention it is manifest that varioustechniques can be used for implementing the concepts of the presentinvention without departing from its scope. Moreover, while theinvention has been described with specific reference to certainembodiments, a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize thatchanges can be made in form and detail without departing from the spiritand the scope of the invention. It should also be understood that theinvention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein,but is capable of many rearrangements, modifications, and substitutionswithout departing from the scope of the invention.

1-19. (canceled)
 20. A method for use by a media player for pairing aphysical medium with a user account, the method comprising: retrieving,by the media player, a medium identifier from the physical medium,wherein the medium identifier uniquely identifies the physical medium;transmitting, by the media player, the medium identifier of the physicalmedium to a server; receiving, by the media player and in response tothe transmitting, a key associated with the medium identifier of thephysical medium from the server; and receiving, by the media player andin response to the transmitting, pairing instructions for use by a userto pair, using a computer, the user account with the physical mediumassociated with the key.
 21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:receiving the user account from the server by the media player.
 22. Themethod of claim 21 further comprising: storing, by the media player, theuser account on the media player.
 23. The method of claim 20, whereinthe transmitting the medium identifier of the physical medium to theserver occurs via the Internet.
 24. The method of claim 20, wherein thephysical medium comprises a movie media disk.
 25. The method of claim20, wherein the user transfers the key from the media player to thecomputer.
 26. A method for use by a server for pairing a physical mediumwith a user account, the method comprising: receiving, by the server, amedium identifier of the physical medium from the media player, whereinthe medium identifier uniquely identifies the physical medium;generating, by the server, a key in response to the receiving;associating, by the server, the key with the medium identifier;transmitting, by the server and in response to the receiving, the key tothe media player; and transmitting, by the server and in response to thereceiving, pairing instructions for use by a user to pair, using acomputer, the user account with the physical medium associated with thekey.
 27. The method of claim 26 further comprising receiving the key andthe user account by the server from the computer for pairing the useraccount with the physical medium associated with the key.
 28. The methodof claim 27, wherein the server receives the key and the user accountvia the Internet.
 29. The method of claim 26, wherein the server isconfigured to communicate with the media player via the Internet. 30.The method of claim 26 further comprising: transmitting, by the server,the user account to the media player for storage on the media player.31. A media player for pairing a physical medium with a user account,the media player comprising: a processor configured to: retrieve amedium identifier from the physical medium, wherein the mediumidentifier uniquely identifies the physical medium; transmit the mediumidentifier of the physical medium to a server; receive, in response totransmitting, a key associated with the medium identifier of thephysical medium from the server; and receive, in response totransmitting, pairing instructions for use by a user to pair, using acomputer, the user account with the physical medium associated with thekey.
 32. The media player of claim 31, wherein the processor isconfigured to receive the user account from the server by the mediaplayer.
 33. The media player of claim 32, wherein the processor isconfigured to store the user account in a memory of the media player.34. The media player of claim 31, wherein transmitting the mediumidentifier of the physical medium to the server occurs via the Internet.35. The media player of claim 31, wherein the physical medium comprisesa movie media disk.
 36. The media player of claim 31, wherein the usertransfers the key from the media player to the computer.